★★★★★ WRITE 500 words a day in 2014 challenge ★★★★★

[Metalhead44]

Had a bout of inspiration come onto me and scribbed my thoughts into a notepad.With todays entry i will include yesterdays entry.

[johnnycash123]

In for this, need to improve my writing for the medical exam

[AntiGlobalist]

Staying strong. Wrote up a review of my CrossFit level 1 class I went to this weekend. http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...post1182022211

[KoCorl]

Been working on this theory I've had for a while, a long road ahead of me for writing this but I would appreciate some thoughts on the matter as I would think some of you brahs would be into philospoy (I've posted this around here a lil bit in the past couple of days but no one offering any good analysis sadly

I call it "Chasing the dragon positively"

Chasing the dragon is a term used widely in the usage of many drugs, the drug user is constantly searching to achieve the high that was once felt when the user first started the drug (that feeling is also extrapolated due to the effects of nostalgia, novelty, and your bodies and minds inexperience with the substance.) Many drugs users are stuck in a downward cycle of usage where they are fruitlessly “chasing” a conclusive high. The principals of this theory lie in the same concept of chasing the dragon, but instead of taking you down a path of drug abuse and looking to reach the promised end, this flips it upon itself to make it become a self fulfilling prophecy for excellence.

*I'll cliff note this as I am not yet ready or have researched enough to give a full explanation.

- Hit rock bottom
-Make a decision to change
-Complete 180 in your life
-Make drastic changes in your life the first week
-feel great about yourself

^^ Now this is all very common in reading a motivational post/video where you will feel a short/burst of energy and then slowly (or fastly) shift back into your normal daily patterns.
-*** /Develop a trigger/embrace a feeling/take a picture/write a short note/ as a remembrance of how you felt that first week after you hit rock bottom and made a decision to completely change your life 
- As time goes on your motivation will start to fade from the intial burst of motivation you once had, this is where you need to activate the trigger you made (wheather that be looking at a picture of you when you were feeling like a god/motivated as fuk/reading a note you wrote to yourself in that phase// whatever you made as your trigger you need to use every day to remind yourself of how you once felt (this is where the chasing the dragon metaphor comes in, except now you are not chasing a impossible temporary high) but you are now chasing a REAL feeling that you had. 
-this is where I am still working hard and researching very in depth on how to extend this to the next level, but the basis is that the trigger you will have developed becomes internalized and it will basically become a self fulfilling prophecy where you are constantly chasing the best version of yourself while you are in the constant progression of becoming the best version of yourself. (if you understand where I'm coming from) so the cycle pretty much keeps continuing and gaining momentum at all times. 

I feel like this technique I am trying to solve in a logical sense has tremendous power and am still constantly in the search of trying to be able to perfect it and be able to verbalize it in a understandable way. 

Right now some concepts I am researching heavily and trying to implement in here are 
-The use of "triggers"
-Visualization and the techniques of visualization
-Cynical views, cynicism, and how to use the value trait humans so desperately crave for motivational purposes
-The general fade of motivation that incurs over a period of time? less neurotransmitters being effected? NT's being effecting in a different way? any factual physiological explanations?
-How easy/possible is it to activate triggers? Universal triggers? programmable triggers?
-Drug relapse usually hits people harder and they spiral down even farther with a relapse // possible for a motivational relapse to increase the speed of the spiral upwards??

Thanks guys I really appreciate any and all insight.

Oh, and to Metalhead about your question a few days ago

[Sikstupid]

Hope everyone can find some time to keep up with your daily writing this holiday week. Happy holidays!

[AntiGlobalist]

Been working on this theory I've had for a while, a long road ahead of me for writing this but I would appreciate some thoughts on the matter as I would think some of you brahs would be into philospoy (I've posted this around here a lil bit in the past couple of days but no one offering any good analysis sadly



Oh, and to Metalhead about your question a few days ago

You should read Think and Grow Rich and Psycho Cybernetics. I think you'll see that your concept is very similar to the practices that both of those books advocate, which is to write down your goal and visualize it with such intensity and emotion that you feel like you're already there. Same concept. Bringing about that feeling of emotion constantly to remind yourself basically of why you do what you do.

Also... this practice is already paying off. Got mod repped in the personal training section for my CrossFit review

[TheApexPredator]

A man like no other; for he was a genius.

A man like no other; for his genius was unparalleled.

The winds bowed down to his will, men jealous of his certainty, and children forever lamenting their lack of daimon.

Personify wind; make it have frail, weak and ultimately - inferior qualities to this 'godlike' man, nawmsaying?(We're The Millers guy).

e.g ''The wind shivered reverently in his presence''

'' men jealous of his certainty, and children forever lamenting their lack of daimon.''

Going to recommend changing that completely, srs. Engage the reader. Elaborate on setting, manipulate sentence structure for effect. Short sentences, increase pace and create tension. Use a variety of punctuation.


Born to a long lineage of seafarers, he had lived on the sea for as long as he could remember. The sailors, the ship and the locations had changed throughout, but the feeling he felt when on board remained still: the slow swaying of the vessel as it left the barbarous waves conjured by the eternal forces of the sea, the bustle of workmen straining against the approaching storm. These feelings echoed those he had felt when reading. O’, how it brought happiness to relive these outside his imagination.

Headstrong and sure, he never drew back. Everyone knew of his talent; so natural and unprovoked. From the tales of Odysseys, who fought so bravely against the avarice of his men, to Heracles: abandoned in his search for his lover, he had learnt all he knew. Sculpted by these stories, he knew no other life than the one of glory, courage and the fight towards immortality.


------------------------------

Not 500 words, but something I've been working on. In for thoughts.

I'll bite.

Criticism in bold for the first two sentences, it applies to all of it though.

Read a book, draw inspiration, learn literary techniques.

I remember reading OMAM in school this year, and whilst it wasn't a very long book, the literary detail and refinement was very, very indepth.

That's all I got mane, das it.

Hope I helped.

Oh yeah, just to add, words have connotations.

Set the mood with words.

Adapt them to change the tone, and so on...

E.g, instead of saying ''They were jealous'

Say something like 'Their eyes glimmered with desire, their pupils an abyss; a dark void, yearning to be filled and to possess the greatness bestowed upon the man.''

Okay, peace.

[Aggressivebrah]

The Challenge: Write 500 words a day in 2014

Why?

Clear writing is reflective of clear thinking. Superior writing skills directly translate into tangible benefits in nearly every career field and industry.

A man who cannot clearly articulate his thoughts in writing will also find it difficult to articulate his thoughts in conversations.



http://lifehacker.com/5886128/how-se...nation-problem

The Goal:

Consciously spend time writing at least 500 words every single day with the intention to continually improve and refine our writing style.

The Rules:

Write at least 500 words per day. Either in this thread, in your journal, or your blog, or anywhere else that you would like to write. But write 500 words per day. Never miss a single day.

Resources:

On Writing Well - http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Well-3.../dp/0060891548
The Elements of Style - http://www.amazon.com/The-Elements-S...ref=pd_sim_b_1
On Writing - http://www.amazon.com/On-Writing-Ann...ref=pd_sim_b_6

Tips:

Be concise. Never use two words where one will suffice.
Remove useless frivolities.
Be clear and direct.

I like the ideas behind this thread! There are some concepts in this thread that are marked by ambiguity, however. In the tips section, for example, being concise is not a necessary restriction of creative, freelance writing; in other words, there are instances were writing requires more brevity, but there are times when it does not require such restrictions. Moreover, what is considered a frivolity? Some examples would clarify each of your tips. Punctuation and grammar — when used correctly — are two noteworthy qualities of writing with precision, poise, and maturity that should be emphasized greatly in the long-term improvement of writing.

[AntiGlobalist]

I like the ideas behind this thread! There are some concepts in this thread that are marked by ambiguity, however. In the tips section, for example, being concise is not a necessary restriction of creative, freelance writing; in other words, there are instances were writing requires more brevity, but there are times when it does not require such restrictions. Moreover, what is considered a frivolity? Some examples would clarify each of your tips. Punctuation and grammar — when used correctly — are two noteworthy qualities of writing with precision, poise, and maturity that should be emphasized greatly in the long-term improvement of writing.

Agreed. Great writers generally break every "rule" of writing that exists.

What are the problems that new writers have? They ramble. They fill their writings with useless platitudes. They forget their audience. They are ambiguous.

I'd still stand by those tips. But if you're at the point where you feel like breaking out of them more power to ya.

It's like how elite level olympic lifters all have their own eccentricities in form but beginners are all taught one standardized set of rules.

[reyes12]

I like to creatively write. Well, I used to do it all the time back in high school. Every time we had a creative writing chapter/term for english class, I'd kill it every time. Always got A's and A+'s.


It's been too long since I have written something creative like I did in HS English. It's funny how you forget where to place commas and use punctuation in general at the right time. I'd like to join in on this too. Hoping to bring back some of my creativity. It's all in my mind. My mind has much imagination and creativity. (srs) Besides drawing, I really don't know how to bring all out like I used to. If I can relearn how to write with correct punctuation and even learn some new things, then I'd feel accomplished.

Have any tips where I could relearn and expand on my english writing?

[AntiGlobalist]

I like to creatively write. Well, I used to do it all the time back in high school. Every time we had a creative writing chapter/term for english class, I'd kill it every time. Always got A's and A+'s.


It's been too long since I have written something creative like I did in HS English. It's funny how you forget where to place commas and use punctuation in general at the right time. I'd like to join in on this too. Hoping to bring back some of my creativity. It's all in my mind. My mind has much imagination and creativity. (srs) Besides drawing, I really don't know how to bring all out like I used to. If I can relearn how to write with correct punctuation and even learn some new things, then I'd feel accomplished.

Have any tips where I could relearn and expand on my english writing?

Reading On Writing Well would be the best place to start.

[reyes12]

Reading On Writing Well would be the best place to start.

will get the ebook version, thanks brah.

[pierz]

Subbed, I'll try my best. I've wanted to start writing for a while, but have been unable to muster the motivation.

gl to everybody

[KoCorl]

You should read Think and Grow Rich and Psycho Cybernetics. I think you'll see that your concept is very similar to the practices that both of those books advocate, which is to write down your goal and visualize it with such intensity and emotion that you feel like you're already there. Same concept. Bringing about that feeling of emotion constantly to remind yourself basically of why you do what you do.

Also... this practice is already paying off. Got mod repped in the personal training section for my CrossFit review

Read both already... Actually think and grow once and pyscho cy 3 times lmao

[tikeshe]

I'll bite.

Criticism in bold for the first two sentences, it applies to all of it though.

Read a book, draw inspiration, learn literary techniques.

I remember reading OMAM in school this year, and whilst it wasn't a very long book, the literary detail and refinement was very, very indepth.

That's all I got mane, das it.

Hope I helped.

Oh yeah, just to add, words have connotations.

Set the mood with words.

Adapt them to change the tone, and so on...

E.g, instead of saying ''They were jealous'

Say something like 'Their eyes glimmered with desire, their pupils an abyss; a dark void, yearning to be filled and to possess the greatness bestowed upon the man.''

Okay, peace.

Thanks man. Much appreciated.

I don't really like the over expressive / descriptive writing, but rather one that lets the reader decide what it means.

eg.

A man like no other; for his genius was unparalleled.

Surely that's obvious? A genius status is/should be given rarely.

The wind part is a reference to Poseidon, but I can understand that it isn't clear at all. Will have to work on that!

Going to recommend changing that completely, srs. Engage the reader. Elaborate on setting, manipulate sentence structure for effect. Short sentences, increase pace and create tension. Use a variety of punctuation.

Which part does this refer to? The last passage or the '' men jealous of his certainty, and children forever lamenting their lack of daimon.''

Anyhow, thanks very much. I don't know if the usage of personification etc is a popular thing now (I don't read contemporary fiction), but I don't recall it being used a lot in the fiction that I've read.

Regardless, will use your suggestions as I write more. Grazie.

[AntiGlobalist]

Going to write my 500 words today in this thread.

Also I want to share my thought process when I'm editing what I write. Generally what I do is write out the first draft without stopping too much to edit. Then I will go through and eliminate redundant words and generally try to improve the structure and wording. Also I have a bad habit of switching from past to present tense and it's easy to spot on a second read-through. I also cut sentences using conjunctions into separate sentences where I can.

First draft:

I've made a decision to stop writing nutrition and workout articles on The Healthy Gamer.

I found over the last few weeks that I was forcing myself to write nutrition/workout articles because I felt like that's what people wanted and that's what would gain me a larger following. This is absolutely the wrong way to approach life.

Sure there are times when you'll need to do something that you don't like. Success demands pain. Success demands sacrifice. But given the choice between two things that will help you reach your goal you should always choose the one that brings more excitement and passion.

In this context I was choosing to write about fitness and nutrition over my real passion: which is the pursuit of our highest potential. My passion in life is to become the best me that I can be and in so doing help motivate and inspire others to be the best them that they can be. Learning about fitness and nutrition has simply been a part of the progress and not the point of the journey. It has helped me develop a rare and valuable skill which I can now capitalize on but I shouldn't try to capitalize on that skill to the exclusion of my true life's calling.

By focusing on my passion this will infuse my writings with passion. With vigor. They will pop and flow. And in the end it will help me accomplish the goal of becoming a better writer because I will write with more enthusiasm.

Edited. Notice I was able to remove 89 words without altering the content.

I've decided to stop writing nutrition and workout articles on The Healthy Gamer.

I've been forcing myself to write these articles because I felt like that's what people wanted. I felt that they would gain me a larger following. This is absolutely the wrong way to approach life.

Sure there are times when you need to do things that you don't like. Success demands pain. Success demands sacrifice. But given the choice between two equally productive activities you should always choose the one that brings more excitement and passion.

In this context I was choosing to write about fitness and nutrition over my real passion; the pursuit of our highest potential. Learning about fitness and nutrition has simply been a part of the progress of achieving my highest potential and not the point of the journey.

Writing with passion will bring my words to life. It will fill them with vigor. It will bring the state of flow.

No more dead words. No more useless content.

Since that was only 250 words I'll write another 250 here on the topic of editing.

Again I highly recommend reading the book On Writing.

Good writers are good editors. I don't know of one famous writer who doesn't edit meticulously.

Editing is tedious. Editing is not fun. Editing is not exciting. And that's fantastic news.

Why? Because editing is what will set you apart as a great writer. People are lazy. Therefore by building the discipline of editing you immediately stand out. It's like a secret weapon. And it doesn't require uncommon talent. It simply requires discipline.

Editing is analogous to bodybuilding. By doing those things that others don't have the discipline to do(eat well, workout consistently) we set ourselves apart with our physique.

So build the discipline of editing. Edit well and edit thoroughly. And just like bodybuilding editing becomes easier with practice.

For simple things like a 15 minute e-mail I'll take two minutes to edit it before sending it off. Two minutes doesn't sound like much but it's the difference between an e-mail that communicates thoughtfulness, thoroughness, and a well-organized mind and an e-mail that makes you look like an idiot. How often do you get e-mails that you have to read multiples times in order to figure out what the person was communicating? Don't be that guy.

I think this really is a good analogy for life as well. What separates good from great usually isn't any particular inborn gift, but rather a lifetime of dedicated and disciplined effort.

So think of editing not only in terms of improving your writing but also of building your discipline muscle.

[Aggressivebrah]

Agreed. Great writers generally break every "rule" of writing that exists.

What are the problems that new writers have? They ramble. They fill their writings with useless platitudes. They forget their audience. They are ambiguous.

I'd still stand by those tips. But if you're at the point where you feel like breaking out of them more power to ya.

It's like how elite level olympic lifters all have their own eccentricities in form but beginners are all taught one standardized set of rules.

You bring up excellent points. We all have to start off with a more basic level before truly creating and priming our own writing styles. It is actually a breath of fresh air to hear someone else acknowledge the fact that different writing styles can coexist. I will definitely contribute to the thread in 2014 with some post from time to time!

I like to creatively write. Well, I used to do it all the time back in high school. Every time we had a creative writing chapter/term for english class, I'd kill it every time. Always got A's and A+'s.


It's been too long since I have written something creative like I did in HS English. It's funny how you forget where to place commas and use punctuation in general at the right time. I'd like to join in on this too. Hoping to bring back some of my creativity. It's all in my mind. My mind has much imagination and creativity. (srs) Besides drawing, I really don't know how to bring all out like I used to. If I can relearn how to write with correct punctuation and even learn some new things, then I'd feel accomplished.

Have any tips where I could relearn and expand on my english writing?

Here are some great websites for understanding grammar and punctuation:
*****://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/566/01/
http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/GrammarPunct.html

[tunyce]

in on this brah.

not a writer but I'll take this challenge to start a journal. should be interesting

[Ravishing_Rick]

i write 500 words on misc every day

[arniesays1]

I'm in on this. I've always wanted to write a book but have no idea what to write about, how to start, what, when, how, whom etc. I have no ideas for a book period.

But, I think this could help. I'm not sure what I'm going to write yet. I'll probably start with something simple like a journal with the plan to expand into better things as my writing become better. At the beginning, it's going to be very forced like a man dancing in a club who's consciously aware of how silly he looks But hopefully s I get better at better the words will start to flow and I'll be like a man dancing in a club free from thought.

[BigAssBubba]

if i wasnt in school i would do this for sure.

writing is my biggest weakness.

[AntiGlobalist]

Got a 800 word article written in just under 30 minutes. Still need to edit, but I'm going to start splitting up my writing and editing time. It's really crazy how much you can accomplish in such a short time once you actually overcome your inertia and just get started.

I've found that it helps me to write a brief outline before I start writing. This one just consisted of three lines and was basically the points I wanted to expand on in the article.

How's everyone else doing?

[TheStender]

How's everyone else doing?

Got both days in for me. Nothing substantial, just writing right now.

[CisqoKid]

In and awesome idea OP. I love to write but struggle to find the motivation to. This seems like a great place to keep myself accountable.

For you sports brahs, I'm thinking of starting a sports blog.

[AntiGlobalist]

In and awesome idea OP. I love to write but struggle to find the motivation to. This seems like a great place to keep myself accountable.

For you sports brahs, I'm thinking of starting a sports blog.

Stop thinking and start starting it

I'm a huge advocate of starting your own website. If nothing else it teaches you very valuable skillsets even if you never gain traction with it.

[CisqoKid]

Snowed in today so I guess I have no choice but to start it! haha

Any tips for starting a website and a youtube channel? Once I buy an hd filming camera I'm starting a youtube channel for cooking aimed at college-aged kids. One of my growing passions.

[AntiGlobalist]

Snowed in today so I guess I have no choice but to start it! haha

Any tips for starting a website and a youtube channel? Once I buy an hd filming camera I'm starting a youtube channel for cooking aimed at college-aged kids. One of my growing passions.

I'll let my 500 words today be a response to your questions.

I won't dive too deep into the technical side of websites. You can find tutorials for everything you need to know through Google. I would recommend getting a bluehost hosting account and creating a Wordpress website. If those words are totally foreign then just google a bit to figure out what webhosting is and what Wordpress is. To get your website up you'll need to buy the domain name(I use namecheap), then have a web host(I use bluehost), and then install the actual website(that's where I use Wordpress).

It seems really complicated and daunting at first. I would advise you to simply focus on the next step. You don't need to learn everything about building a website in a day. You just have to learn how to do the very next thing. Maybe today you figure out how to buy a domain, tomorrow you figure out how to get a webhost, and then the rest of the week you tinker with Wordpress and figure out how to use it.

Now on to the meat and potatoes... Whatever type of website/YouTube channel you decide to create you need to put a lot of thought into your target audience. You need to have a very focused and specific target audience. Let's go with the sports blog idea. You don't want to just write about Hockey. That's way too general. Nobody is out there searching for just general news about Hockey, or, if they are it's already covered much better by someone like ESPN. You want to write about something very targeted and specific. Maybe focus down your niche to a specific team and then write articles focused on specific players or coaches on that team.

You might think, well, if I just write about one team I'll lose out on all the people who like other teams. True. But consider this: if you try to write about every team your content will be disjointed and shallow and the reality is nobody will care about ANY of it. However if you focus on a very targeted audience then people who follow that specific team will be much more likely to actually follow your blog; because you're writing about a topic that they're passionate about, and because you have a narrow focus you can dive in and produce really in-depth high quality content.

So if it's a choice between not attracting ANYONE and attracting a very narrow and specific and passionate following which are you going to choose?

Another very important concept is this: people care about blogs/YouTubers who they can feel a connection to. This is at the core of how Healthy Gamer has become successful. Because I speak to my audience in a way that resonates with them. I share my struggles as a nerdy MMO addict. I share how much social anxiety/depression/fear and whatnot I've gone through. And in those stories my audience can see themselves. So now they feel like they resonate and connect with me and this creates a strong affinity. Now they are much more apt to take advice from me on bodybuilding/nutrition as opposed to some other guy because they feel like I have been in their shoes, and therefore my advice is more relevant to them. Even if I'm saying the exact same thing as the next guy. Simply the fact that my audience connects with me better gives me a huge advantage over everyone else in the fitness/nutrition space.

So figure out ways to connect with your audience. Write like a real human being. Don't try to sound like a newspaper.

As far as YouTube goes again focus down your niche. This is something I've failed at. My channel has been all over the place and thus it actually gets a fairly low view count/total subscriber because I've been doing cooking, and fitness, and gaming stuff. Moving forward I'm going to really focus down and break off the channel in different segments. One will be focused solely on fitness, another solely on motivational stuff, another solely on gaming.

So I would suggest you focus really narrowly. Maybe your channel could be "5 minute meals" or something of the sort. And you only put up videos that take five minutes of prep work.

Another great idea is to hop on trends. Paleo right now would be huge. Another example: I know a guy who started making Clash of Clans videos when the game first came out. He started out with no subscribers a year ago and now he's at 87,000 subs simply because he was able to take advantage of a trending game. Of course he still did a lot of hardwork putting out videos everyday but he wouldn't have had nearly as much success if he'd tried to do this in a saturated/non-trending market like Call of Duty videos.

Hope this helps. Thanks for helping me push out 500+ words with ease

[CisqoKid]

awesome response

Thanks for the in depth response man, if I could rep u again I would.

Appreciate you going more in depth on the meat of these ventures and not the technical side of them, I'm sure I'm savvy enough to figure that stuff out. Checked out your website; I'm not much of a gamer but I totally see what you're saying with the whole "finding your niche" thing. Looks like you're doing a killer job with it, liked it on fb.

Typed out a whole response but decided to PM you instead just in case I gave away too much info about myself. Pepper your angus for a novel lol

[IndianMan]

do you guys critique things as well? i have something i'm writing it would be cool if you guys critique one part of it. will measly rep

[Curls89]

I've been thinking about getting into Affiliate Marketing recently. Hopefully this challenge will help me become a much better writer. I'll probably start with a journal then gradually write about the niche I select.